VICTORIA -- While the B.C. Liberals plead poverty on any number of spending priorities, they’ve not exercised restraint on a government advertising budget that is poised to hit $64 million over Premier Christy Clark’s two years in office.

Clark, on becoming premier in March 2011, straightaway presided over a major increase in the advertising spending.

Premier Gordon Campbell, in his last year (fiscal 2010-11), doled out $17.5 million for all categories of government-funded advertising, from tourism marketing, to ads touting the virtues of Liberal programs, to routine communication of information about government services.

Clark boosted spending to $34.5 million in her first year in office, a near doubling that coincided with her determination to rebrand the Liberals and improve public perceptions of a troubled administration.

The jury is still out on whether all those dollars had any positive impact on her political fortunes. Not much, is the impression from the latest opinion polls.

But the premier and her colleagues have lost none of their enthusiasm for advertising spending, having budgeted a further $29.5 million for the current financial year.

As to where all this money is going, Clark’s first year included a $5-million campaign that tried to persuade British Columbians to support the harmonized sales tax in the referendum.

Didn’t work, though the Liberals argue that the margin of defeat (55 per cent against the HST, 45 per cent for) would have been even greater without the soothing effect of all those ads.

Still a waste and one that sidelined any hope of a fresh start for the new premier.

The Liberals then proceeded to spend $4 million promoting the new version of a jobs strategy.

Supposedly the money was going to be divided between a domestic campaign that “communicates the government’s renewed focus and comprehensive plan to protect jobs and grow the economy in B.C.” and an international campaign that “informs foreign investors of the unique advantages that B.C. has to offer them.”

But the Liberals have admitted that virtually every dollar went to domestic advertising. As well, the government provided $1.8 million for a second major advertising push “to inform British Columbians about the services and career opportunities provided by the ministry of jobs, tourism and innovation.”

The Liberals also spent $5 million on a campaign built around the theme of Healthy Families BC, keyed to the new premier’s “families first” agenda.

The main thrust — quoting from the government’s own characterization of the campaign — “focused on reducing sodium intake and building awareness around sodium consumption.”

Yes, they spent $5 million mainly telling folks to put less salt on their food. Your government in action.

The health ministry mounted a second campaign, Think Health B.C., budgeted at $1.2 million and described as “a multi-faceted initiative to communicate the ministry’s strategy for sustainable health care to British Columbians, using an interactive multimedia approach.” Whatever that means.

Indeed, reading over the descriptions of these campaigns, one is not surprised that all those advertising dollars have had little impact on the government’s standing in the opinion polls.

While the health ministry was doing its multi-faceted thing, the education ministry got behind a $2.5-million campaign “designed to reach parents of school-age kids about the government plans to ensure their children are prepared for the ever-changing future.”

The foregoing “raised awareness about the government’s plan and invited the public to share their ideas on line,” according to the Liberals. The government spent a further $233,000 promoting “the year of science” to school students and their parents.

Rounding out the year’s major advertising campaigns was $1 million worth of cautionary messages about the incidence of human-caused forest fires, plus $10 million dispersed across Canada and around the world to market B.C. as a tourist destination.

Turning to the current year, the tourism marketing budget has been reduced by about five per cent to just under $9.5 million.

There’s $1 million for the ministry of advanced education, presumably geared to promoting skills, training and career opportunities. The finance ministry set aside $800,000 for itself, presumably to spread the word about the transition back to the provincial sales tax and other budget changes.

Another $3.5 million is ticketed for unspecified advertising campaigns run out of the government communications shop.

But the biggest ticket item is the second instalment of advertising promoting the jobs strategy. The Liberals set aside $11 million for that purpose from the contingency budget without saying anything about when, how and where it will be spent.

Details to come when the public accounts are released next July, meaning after the election.

But even without any further details, Christy Clark’s running total for spending on advertising tops out at $64 million and counting.

And for those needing a point of comparison, that is twice what the government spends on parks in a given year, three times what it spends on arts, culture and sports, and half again as much as the annual funding for crime prevention and the victims of crime.

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